Pretty Boy
by we'reonfire
Summary: As an act of so called "manliness", Cole has decided to take us on a trip outside the fence. It's a bad idea, and I know I'm probably regret this, but we deserve a little fun. So we cross, heading off into who-knows-what.


**A/N**: a one-shot I thought of while I was watching TV. not my best, but I hope you like it anyway.

**note:** let's say that neither Prim nor Peeta got reaped, I thought it would be nicer for the plot-line if that didn't happen.

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own the Hunger Games.

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**:: Manliness ::**

* * *

"Kay Peet, you got the water right?"  
"Yes Cole, I got the water bottles."  
"Cool, 'kay, we went over the plan right? If we get caught, we're looking for my little sister that got lost on her way home."  
I sigh, Cole's plan sounds legit, but if we get caught, we are in so much trouble. As an act of "manliness" Cole, a bunch of friends along with myself are going into the woods as a celebration for getting past our 6th reaping. Or as I like to call it, my second to last chance to die. I feel someone smack me upside the head and I wince.  
"Dude!" I hear Cole's jubilant voice whisper. I turn to him, and his blue eyes are filled with excitement. That's probably what mine look like too. We stand, my form towering over his by a good inch or three. Cole is nice, the one merchant boy everyone seems to like, besides me of course. But I guess, not _everyone_. The Seam kids respect me, I am one of a few who don't tease or bully them, and for that reason I talk to a lot of them in the hallways. Most of them, I am on good terms with, except for the _one_ person, who I actually _want_ to be on good terms with. We've only spoken to each other a handful of times, a "what's for homework?" there, a "how's the sister?" here. A handful of words that she'll forget in an instant, and a handful of words that I'll keep treasured. I sigh. I'm pathetic.  
"Let's go!" Cole whisper-shouts. "We don't want to be left behind!" he says quietly, pulling his newly camouflaged backpack on. I do the same, checking for the water bottles, the camera, and the small amount of food I stashed. The camera could be hard to explain to my peers. I found the camera on my doorstep, probably thrown there by some person who had no use for it. There is no person that I know of that would throw away a working Polaroid camera. It still had a full stack of photo sheets in them as well! There is nothing you can't use in district Twelve. Cole and I trudge on, past the butchers, past the flower store, and past the mayor's quarters on the edge of the Merchant's Square. We walk a little towards the Seam now, and my thoughts start to wander.  
Could that be her house?  
Is that her sister's goat calling out for food?  
"I hope they didn't leave yet!" a loud, out of place voice jolts me out of my thoughts. I turn my head to Cole, who is fidgeting slightly as he walks through the soot covered streets of the Seam. His blonde head makes my eyes widen a little, and realize how suspicious we might look to some early risers. Two teenage town kids, walking through the Seam with backpacks slung on our backs. If I lived in the Seam, I'd be suspicious.  
"Why would they leave without their leader?" I ask, smirking, hoping to get rid of the tense air with a joke. A nervous laugh is my response.  
"Whatever Peeta," he grumbles. I can't help but laugh. In the ten years I've known Cole, he has never come up with a good comeback to my comments. After another tense minute, we finally round the corner past the slag heap, and the four other blonde heads snap up to see us.  
"There they are!" I hear someone exclaim loudly, and I wince at the volume it has. It's loud enough to wake some birds.  
"Shhhh!" someone else in the group scolds. Cole and I share a glance that clearly says _we're screwed. _

"You're _absolutely sure_ it's off?"  
"No, it's on, my hand is now reduced to melted flesh and bones. "

This is the result of endless minutes of poking the fence. Because apparently, we're not big enough men to just slide under the damn fence. I seriously feel like punching someone right now.  
"Oh my foot, just get under the flipping fence!" I spit, handing my pack to Cole to hold and sliding under the fence profusely. I roll my eyes when I stand up, unharmed on the other side, my entire body alive with adrenaline.  
"Could you guys just hurry it up already? Geez." I say, gesturing the slightly larger hole in the fence and face-palming. As much as I love Cole and the rest, they need to hurry the hell up. Cole smiles excitedly at me, and slides under the fence quickly. When the last person is on the other side, the hole is a BIGGER hole. Great.

A few minutes later, the entire group is chattering away with hushed voices as we walk through the woods. It's a little unnerving, listening to every single rustle and snap and not being able to predict a thing. Cole has already tripped twice. And how he tripped over _grass_, I'm not sure of.  
"Hey, whaddya think we'll find here?" I hear someone in the back ask. I roll my eyes and focus on the trees and the wildlife. I've never seen so many trees, or heard so many gentle sounds in my life. The answer "girls" has me bursting into laughter. The idea is so absurd, that I have to laugh.

I hear someone swear in the back, and I just figure someone's tripped again. Cole and I keep walking, chatting quietly to each other.  
"Do you think we'll run into Hawthorne here?" he asks, eyeing the butterfly that has fluttered past us. I shrug.  
"It hasn't crossed my mind." I tell him honestly. Gale Hawthorne, who got through all 7 of his reapings with a whopping 42 slips doesn't appear in my thoughts much, now that he works in the mine. Cole stares at me like I've grown a second head.  
"So let me get this straight," he says, his blue eyes gleaming with mischief. "We're on the trip of our _lives_, and you haven't even thought of running into Hawthorne?" he asks, still walking, stumbling over his feet. I shrug.  
"Not really." I say. Cole stares at me, his eyes dull and his usual smile gone. It's an expression I've come to learn that means _idiot_.  
"_Gale Hawthorne_, the guy who could snap your neck in half if you threatened his cousin?" the meaning behind the word _cousin_ makes me perk up. Cole notices immediately, and I try to resume my casual expression rule over the hopeful one. I fail miserably. Cole sighs and rolls his eyes at me and walks ahead of me. We are deep in the woods now, the fence and the meadow that greeted us in our first few minutes of walking has disappeared from sight. We are so utterly vulnerable here, but the feeling has me thrilled.  
"Hey!" I hear from behind me, a small boy's voice echoing through the trees. I abruptly stop walking to face whoever made the noise.  
"Let's stop for a while," the boy says. I immediately soften at his feeble voice. The young boy must be 14, 15 at the most. He looks petrified, and I figure he must be someone's little brother. I hear someone scoff at him, but it's clear we are all tired. It's been an hour, and we haven't stopped to take a drink or eat.  
"It's a good idea," I hear Cole say behind me, sitting down on a log and opening his backpack to reveal a packed sandwich. I settle down next to him, pulling my own sandwich out of my backpack. The rest of the group share a collective sigh and sits down, to eat breakfast.

Over the next hour, we share laughs, we share secrets and we share stories of girlfriends and siblings. I know now, that the 14 year old boy, James, fancies a girl in his grade, Cole's little sister in fact, Maya, who I quote "has long wavy blonde hair, and the prettiest blue eyes in the world."  
"Well, I'll put in a good word for you," I joke, watching the boy's face light up with hope.  
"Will you really? Because I really like her, and-"I cut him off, staring at the gleam in his eyes when he talks about her. It's eerily similar to my own look when I think of _her_.  
"Yeah," I say, reassuring him. "She's a cool girl, and I'll definitely bring you up." I say as I rise, pulling my backpack on. I have to laugh at James' hopeful expression as he bounds around with a new energy, walking with a skip in his step. He is something I thought I would never see.

I see myself.

The atmosphere of the group changes drastically as I hear a yelp ahead of me and a snapping noise. My mind goes into overdrive, I run ahead, my heart-beat spikes drastically, but I ignore it.

_I have to get to him, I have to get to him, I have to get to him._

But when I see the scenario splayed out for me to see, I can't help but choke on my laughter. I laugh so hard, my sides hurt. I don't think I've laughed so hard in my life.

"DUDE HELP ME GET DOWN!" Cole shouts, his arms falling upside down, causing my laughter to further. I can't help it, I take out my camera and pull the viewer to my eye. I position myself to get the entire scenario in the shot. I make sure to get the wire on Cole's foot, I make sure to get the redness of Cole's face, and I make sure to get the upside down position he's in. In an instant, I know the caption that will go on the bottom of the picture.

_Idiot got in a snare._

The rest of the group rushes into the scene and the laughter multiplies in a second. I even see little James snickering.

"HEY!" A loud, deep, booming voice gets us to shut up. To laughter ceases in a millisecond when the tall, lean and _scowling_ figure of Gale Hawthorne steps into the scene.

Screw me.

"What the hell happened here?" he asks angrily, gesturing to the newly snared Cole. No-one answers. For a moment, I don't think anyone will save us, when lo behold, James speaks up.  
"Cole got caught in a snare." Gale's expression immediately softens a little, and I fight the urge to take a picture of his newfound expression.  
"Well, I can't get him down." He says.  
"WHAT?!" I hear Cole exclaim, his voice incredulous.  
"This is your snare, isn't it?" he asks, trying to gesture to the wire looped tightly his foot. Gale nods, his face sheepish. Another expression I've never seen on the dark-haired boy.

"I can't climb that tree to fix the wire, I'm too heavy." He explains. I see James set forward in the corner of my eye.  
"I could try," he says, his voice small and quiet.  
"NO!"  
"NO!" Gale and I both say simultaneously.

"I'm not wasting your skin on a snared boy," Gale says, his gray eyes blazing in determination. I have a new respect for Gale Hawthorne. He is intimidating, scary and tall, but he has a heart. He will not out someone so young in harm. But I refrain from thinking like that. Because if James is too young, then Gale is old enough.

"I'll get someone else to do it," he says, placing his large and calloused hands on James and guiding him to my side. As soon as he is by my side, my hand ruffles his hair.  
"Catnip!" Gale shouts, his voice echoing loudly in the forest. "need your help here!"  
A groan of frustration is heard in the distance. Gale chuckles at the response he gets. I hear rustling in front of us, and Katniss appears, hair loose and wavy, clad in shorts short enough for my mind to wander for a fleeting moment. I am, in fact, a teenage boy, afterall.  
"Idiot," she spits, her voice laced with venom. "You made me lose him!" she exclaims, her hands forming fists. Gale looks confused as well as the rest of group must look.  
"Who?" he asks, eyebrows quirked.  
"The buck I was trying to get, Gale! He was a beauty, I could have gotten so much for him!" she spits, her eyes down-casted, most probably unaware to the fact someone is hanging upside down in a snare, and a bunch of town kids are drooling over her legs.  
"Thanks a lot, Gale-"she abruptly cuts off, icy gray eyes landing on the upside down Cole. Her eyebrows quirk and it has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen.  
"What are blondies doing the forest?" she asks, stepping forward to examine us. This is the closest any merchant has gotten to her. It is then I notice the full extent of her shiny dark hair, the long brown eyelashes that rest on her eyes. I hear Gale snicker at Katniss behind her.  
"CAN YOU FREAKING HELP ME?" Cole asks his face redder than I've seen it. Katniss glances ruefully at the snared Cole and she pushes past us to climb the tree. Her shoulder brushes against mine, and electricity sparks from where we touched. It's the best feeling in the world. She skillfully climbs the tree in a flash, her careful fingers disentangling the thin wire that holds (and probably is cutting off all circulation from it), Cole's foot. After a moment of fiddling around with the wire, Cole is released, and he tumbles to the forest floor gracefully, making a thumping sound and a groan as his body hits the floor. I hear a little laugh that sounds so melodic, it can't come from a normal being, and look up to see Katniss sitting on the branch laughing quietly at Cole's descent. She tries to hide it, once I look up, but it's too late. I know. Her stone cold glare she wears at school, is a disguise.  
"Look, why don't you guys just get lost?" Gale asks, watching Cole brush off dirt from his pants and glares at Gale.  
"Gale, c'mon, lay off." I hear Katniss say, her voice having a light tone, but having an edge to it at the same time. I wish I could hear it more enough. Now that I think about it, this could make a good story. Imagine it, A group of hormone-crazed teenage merchant boys, an annoyed building on feet, and then the prettiest girl in the world _laughing_ in a tree. Well, kill me now and make me into soup if that's not attention grabbing as hell.

"Katniss," Gale says. "they're _blondies_, what the hell are they doing here?"  
"I don't know Gale, but they're obviously not here to hunt."  
"And how would we know that?"  
"Because they're scaring all the game within a 3 mile radius with their feet."  
That ends the conversation between Gale and Katniss. I have to suppress a smirk at Gale's glare, but I fail.  
"What're you smiling about, Mellark?" he asks, fingers locking around the bow he holds in his hands. I raise my hands in surrender, I meant nothing by that smirk.  
"Nothin'" I say. Gale looks at me with unsure eyes and growls.  
"look, just get lost." He growls, stomping away with muttered curses.  
"Do you guys know the way back to the fence?" I hear. I raise my head to see Katniss looking down at us from her branch, a questioning gaze in her pretty eyes.  
"Not really." I hear James say. Katniss rolls her eyes annoyingly and calls for Gale again.  
"GAALE!"  
"WHAAT?!"  
"I'M GOING TO THE FENCE WITH THE TOWNIES!"  
"WHAT?!"

Gale barrels through the trees again, panting.  
"I'm coming," he says, fixing his hair.  
"Visiting _Madge_?" Katniss' tone is teasing, a mischievous glint in her eyes. This is a side of her I've never seen, the friendly, sarcastic and teasing person she actually she is seems to shine bright in the forest. I can't blame her.

"Shut up," he mutters, slinging the bow across his chest and moving ahead. He stops and looks, to see that we haven't moved a step.  
"Well, are you coming?" he asks.

"Seriously Gale, the guy checks out your butt all the time, its just plain nasty."  
"Okay, that's wierd."

"THAT'S WIERD?! THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY WHEN A TOWNIE CHECKS OUT YOUR BUTT?!"  
Katniss and Gale chat loudly in the forest, their steps silent and graceful. Our feet clunk through the forest scaring off sleeping squirrels and birds.  
"Having fun, kid?" I ask James, looking around at the trees, noting their bright green leaves to remember for my next painting subject. My mtother isn't fond of my painting, but if it shuts me up and keeps me out of the way, then she's all for it.

"Yeah, I'm okay, just a little tired." I hear James respond quietly and timidly. I nod absently, my eyes trained on the sway of Katniss' long brown hair. It's the first time I've seen her, like_ really _seen her. It's the first time I've seen her so alive and content. The smile on her face and the skip in her step gives it all away. I'd like to see that more.  
"Everdeen is looking _fine_, I bet she's rough in bed." I start to see red. Katniss abruptly stops making me bump into her. Her hands form fists and clenching tight enough to make her knuckles go white. She whips around, her hair flipping to add to the effect of her blazing silver eyes.  
"Look here, _pretty boy_," Katniss growls, spitting out the slang for merchant with obvious distaste in her mouth, advancing slowly towards the idiot that commented on her.. _behaviour. _  
"Please remember this moment right here, where my fist lands in your face, and when I drive an arrow through your skull." she growls calmly, backing up the scared looking 17 year old merchant (I don't care for his name.) against a tree. She pulls a knife out of the waistband of her pants and in a flash, the blade is pressed against the boy's neck, ready to slice open the tender and pale flesh of his neck.  
"Because, she purrs. "it's too bad," she presses the knife further into his neck, that is surely going to leave a mark later in the day.  
"a face like yours goes to waste." she growls, the innocent act finally getting in her nerves. She presses the blade into the boy's neck, but retracts it quickly before she can draw blood.  
"If you ever talk about me like that again, this knife, will be going into your neck." and at that, she is gone. In a flash of brown hair and olive skin, she has dissappeared back into the forest.

"Alright townies," Gale grunts. "fence is that way, another few minutes and you'll be warm and toasty with food in your stomachs back at your pretty home." Gale growls, backing away from us and back into the forest to join Katniss, wherever she went.

We trudge on, and I can't help but get the feeling that we are being watched. By Katniss, by Gale, by some freaky man with long limbs and no face or something. Although, the latter is probably a figment of my imagination. Whoever is watching us, they have been for a while. The group reaches the meadow that we passed hours ago, and the fence, _home_is in sight. I look back at the trees for moment, my eyes locking on a pair of icy silver ones high in a tree, watching. The eyes blink, and I blink back, smiling a little at the figure, even though I know she won't smile back. The eyes disappear, and I turn in the direction of home, and cross the fence once again. As I walk home, her voice, light and alive, breaks out in my thoughts.

_Pretty boy. _

Is that all I am to her? Another glorified pretty boy with blond hair and blue eyes? I hope not.

As I turn the knob, one thought trumps even her voice.

_So much for manliness. _


End file.
